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John Talley

I read an Sports Illustrated online story about “The Dirty Game” that details Oklahoma State infractions in drugs, money, sex, academics and the fallout.

I noticed two things almost immediately. One contributor was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma — archrival. And with that being the case I figured he would bend over backwards to be fair and honest in his reporting. Then I read the article and saw how he treated John Talley, Fellowship of Christian Athletes staff member for this area of Oklahoma.

Innuendo: Write sentences. Edit out all that doesn’t help your point. One need not be bright to do it, or the hacks would be members of Mensa.Case in point: your SI.com article includes John Talley in OSU football’s “story”. See your sentence and its more complete ending: “Talley says that he sometimes paid players a fee for speaking engagements” and the rest of the story — whether they played at OSU or a surrounding high school, or just had a great testimony for Christ — so he never took advantage of students and their hours of travel time. SI.com: “… and that they frequently did work on his ranch” — and more fully; his ‘ranch’ where every bridle, saddle, pad, horse shoe, and horse are donated or bartered. Similarly, John’s house; I asked him to house people during Aso’s summer there. So Aso got bumped from the guest room for visiting missionaries — while Aso worked to serve the Lord across the state. John raises his FCA salary yearly, which has never approached a level where Caryl did not have to work. John never has the kind of cash “remembered” by some players.You omitted eight athletes, who moved a storage shed to my house — for what we could afford: $200.00 split eight ways for three hours’ work. SI.com, innuendo is poor writing, but omitting does keep down the word count to sound more salacious.

PERSONALLY, I could not read the article and not react. I sent my response to SI.com and that is the lesson. You and I cannot stand by while people drag friends through mud. At the least it is embarrassing. At the least, given enough mud, you can kill people.